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Massachusetts lawmakers spar over marriage proposal BY JENNIFER PETER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON — Witnesses to Massachusetts’ marathon gay marriage debate have heard the anger of a black senator who grew up in the segregated South. They have heard the fear of a gay lawmaker who felt helpless to protect his sick child. And they have heard the pain of a House member whose vote against gay marriage tore his family apart. “Sometimes you have to do what you believe, regardless of the con sequences,” said Democratic Rep. David Flynn, a grandfather who said he became estranged from a family member because of his vote. It’s been a long, strange trip for the Massachusetts Legislature, with 28 hours of emotional debate over three days in the past two months on a proposed amendment to the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Lawmakers resume the consti tutional convention Monday and are expected to decide whether to give final approval to an amend ment on the table that would ban gay marriage but allow gay couples to enter into civil unions. If it is ap proved, the Legislature would have to adopt an identical measure in the 2005-06 session, then put it before voters on the November 2006 ballot. The debate so far — coming on the heels of a court ruling that is sci iu legalize same-sex mar riages in Massachusetts beginning in mid May — has seen Byzantine politi cal maneuvering alongside mo ments of levity. oen. Kuuen navern juneu uiai those who are uncomfortable with gay sex should endorse gay mar riage, because everyone knows, “After marriage, there is no sex.” The Bible has been cited both as evidence of the sanctity of het erosexual marriage and as an il lustration that its verses might not, in every respect, be the best model for marriage laws. “Solomon had 700 wives,” Democratic Rep. Daniel Bosley noted on the floor. “I am not sug gesting anyone try that.” To date, according to tran scripts, 76 lawmakers have given a total of 100 speeches on gay mar riage over the course of a debate with intensely personal stories about love, marriage, family, equal ny, uciuagc, mi.e turn religion. “I know the pain of | being less than equal, " and I cannot and will not impose that status on anyone else,” said Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, a black woman who was raised in the South. i couiu not in goon conscience evei vote to send anyone to that place from which my family fled.” There have been lengthy ora tionson long-standing traditions. “Mother Nature left her blueprint behind and she left it in DNA, a man and a woman,” said Rep. Marie Parente, a Democrat who opposes gay marriage. I didn’t create that combination; Mother Nature did.” “Solomon had 700 wives. I am not suggesting anyone try that.” DANIEL BOSLEY DEMOCRATIC MASSACHUSETTS REPRESENTATIVE NASA breaks mach 7 barrier with revolutionary scramjet BY ROBERT JABLON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES — Three years af ter its first test flight ended in an explosion, NASA on Saturday suc cessfully launched an experimen tal jet that the agency believes reached a record-setting speed of about 5,000 mph. The unpiloted X-43A made an 11-second powered flight, then went through some twists and turns during a six-minute glide be fore plunging into the Pacific Ocean about 400 miles off the California coast. “It was fun all the way to Mach 7,” said Joel Sitz, project manag er at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. Flight engineer Lawrence Huebner said preliminary data in dicated the needle-nosed jet reached a maximum speed of slightly over seven times the speed of sound, or about 5,000 mph, after a rocket boosted it to about 3,500 mph. Huebner said it was the first time an “air-breathing” jet had ever traveled so fast. The rocket-pow ered X-15 reached Mach 6.7 in 1967. “It’s a great way to end, cer tainly all the sweeter because of the challenges we’ve had to step up to and overcome through the life of this project,” said Griffin Corpening, Dryden’s chief engi neer on the project. The first X-43A flight ended in failure June 2,2001, after the mod ified Pegasus rocket used to ac celerate the plane veered off course and was detonated. An in vestigation board found preflight analyses failed to predict how the rocket would perform, leaving its control system unable to maintain stable flight. NASA built the X-43A under a k $250 million program to develop W and test an exotic type of engine called a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet. Live With Your Friends! •Free USC Shuttle •Free Ethernet •Free W/D •Private Bedrooms And Bathrooms *Be Happy You Got The Best Value! *Be Proud Of Where You Live! *Enjoy The Benefits Of Luxury Living! Be Healthy! Have Fun! *24 Hour Fitness Center 'Basketball & Sand Volleyball Courts *Pool & Hot Tub *Free Tanning Dome •Rent As Low As $390 ‘Furnished Units •Spacious Floor Plans •All The Comforts Of Home! Love Where You Live! sterling'university Oaks 252-2634 21 National Guard Road ~ Columbia, SC 29201 •<»• -f a»'il8tl,-l26 | Free fooa, fUlJ ana ariies 1